Monday, December 28, 2009
Top 5 of the Top 10s
(CHICAGO, IL – December 28, 2009) I was a little disappointed not to find what I consider to be one of horse racing’s Top 10 developments on anyone’s end-of-the-decade list. Even Seth Merrow, the founder of Equidaily.com, overlooked the emergence of the compilation Web site when citing the most significant technological developments of recent memory in a study conducted by the r2 Collective.
Merrow’s phenomenon, an Internet page of links that provides easy access to news stories and blog entries scattered throughout cyberspace, was the sport’s lone source for consolidating copyrighted work in one place before the paulickreport.com came along a couple of years ago. Today, both sites include just about anything about horse racing worth reading; even some things that aren’t.
In any case, it was Merrow and Paulick who inspired me to compose this final HorseRaceInsider.com column of 2009 as an article directory of the top Top 10 lists that have popped up in the last several weeks. It’s been said that imitation is the best form of flattery. Moreover, nobody needs poring through every turf writer’s list and I figured it might be efficient to have the best of the lists handy. So, with that, let’s get started.
http://bit.ly/7nMpG2
Critics of the part-time horse racing writer, Tim Layden, will contest his conclusions that the 2007 Belmont Stakes was the race of the “aughts” and drug policy violators Todd Pletcher and Steve Asmussen were the period’s best trainers. But Layden’s provocative SI.com article captures many highs and lows accurately in a concise, entertaining manner and covers ground that many “Top” lists don’t. Layden gave plenty of thought to his long list of 20 horses and short list of nine category selections and five “Top Stories,” something not readily apparent in the genre. Once done with brain flexing, all that was left for him to do was sort through his employer’s voluminous research library and choose between happenings. Yet, he managed that step expertly.
4. Racing Review of 2009 by Adam Norman for Sky Sports
http://bit.ly/6smxQG
With the recent successes of European-based horses in the Breeders’ Cup, horse racing fans are awakening to the stark understanding that the sport is being played on a higher level throughout the world. Norman’s seven-course serving of horse racing’s highlights for Sky Sports, including an eye-catching color slide show, provides USA fans with a brief, albeit comprehensive, glimpse of the stories that marked the scene in the UK. Noteworthy for including flat and National Hunt racing (steeplechase) in one sweep, Norman’s piece features reports on the significant seasons compiled by six-time Group 1 winner Sea the Stars, veteran trainer John Oxx and jumps jockey Tony McCoy as well as a tribute to departed figures like legendary Vincent O’Brien..
3. Steve Haskin, in the Dec. 26/Jan. 2 combined issue of The Blood-Horse, and at
http://bit.ly/6dDQuY
Horse racing’s most popular writer, the irrepressible Steve Haskin, lightened the holiday load for his fellow staff members at The Blood-Horse by producing numerous lists of the decade’s best while they were off enjoying the holidays. The works of the great expatiator sometimes seem endless and he believes every word that he writes is necessary. Nevertheless, if you have the time, Haskin’s a chronicler of amazing stamina, recall and depth, which makes this series of Top 10 lists exemplary. Some of his categories, like the decades’s Best Triple Crown moments, in which he promoted 11 of the 30 possible races with bons mots, are sans discernment. But others, like the decade’s Most Physically Impressive Horses, reveal rare insight.
2. Deck the Halls with the Passing Decade by Bill Christine for HorseRaceInsider.com at
http://bit.ly/8NCBM2
Bill Christine, a two-time Eclipse Media Award winner, may have slowed down his output since leaving the LA Times, but any article that appears beneath his byline zooms along at the speed of a Hollywood freeway. Christine’s words float on the page. His sense of the past is his strength, and he lets readers in on its secrets like a masterful mystery novelist. In this list of the decade’s highlights and lowlights, Christine seems a little West Coast-biased and misses the biggest light of all – the country’s over-the-top preoccupations with Barbaro. Moreover, he inexplicably includes Richard Mandella’s four Breeders’ Cup victories on one day, Julie Krone’s Hall of Fame induction and the retirement of jockeys – all nice, but not significant, passages. Regardless, who knows what stirs some people’s souls and not others? For example, I believe that Grassy’s victory by a nose, by another nose, by another nose, another nose and another nose on Alabama Stakes Day at Saratoga was notable, and it didn’t make anyone’s list.
1. The Deciders by Jay Hovdey at DRF.com
http://bit.ly/7gHMxl.
Readers will have to accept more West Coast-bias in this poignant piece, which Jay Hovdey, its author, called “The Best Decisions of 2009.” But a dean’s list of horse racing writers operate in the Pacific Time Zone and Hovdey is their class valedictorian. Writing articles that the Daily Racing Form decided to call blogs (now that’s a bad decision) because they appear solely on the Internet, the veteran columnist ranks, in no particular order, the decisions made by Wesley Ward to go purse hunting at Royal Ascot, Jess Jackson to refrain from the temptation of Pro-Ride Breeders’ Cup competition and Zenyatta’s connections to bypass the Ladies Classic for the Classic among his 10 favorites. Yet, the last decision he writes about – that by trainer Bobby Frankel to pass quietly with dignity – is a heart stopper.
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Written by Vic Zast
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